


Cuts

by ThatWasntSoBad



Series: Phoenix Shepard/Kaidan Alenko [3]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Fluff, possibly mutual pining?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:28:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25069954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatWasntSoBad/pseuds/ThatWasntSoBad
Summary: Phoenix forgets about the existence of a cut and the staff-lieutenant decides to deal with it. Requested on Tumblr :)
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard
Series: Phoenix Shepard/Kaidan Alenko [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1720840
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Cuts

The silence was palpable, interrupted only by the tapping of keyboard keys and mouse clicks, looking between emails and notes to write a report to Hackett on the retrieval of information she discovered about possible human colony attacks - by Batarians or pirates - and anything which needed further and thorough investigation, usually Cerberus related. 

Although the negative impact caused by the transfer of the Cipher had reduced, she still felt its lingering effect after each revision of the Prothean message - nothing more than a minor headache and small spells of drowsiness. Nothing serious, thankfully, but she had yet to find a way to help apart from having a regular sleep schedule. Which wasn’t something she had, no matter her attempts - her job simply didn’t allow for one any longer than five days. If she was lucky.   
  
Although the ache to the back of her head spread to the front, it was more of a niggle and relatively easy to live with. Especially compared to the cut on her right temple, edging onto her forehead. She wasn’t entirely sure how she got it, possibly from an explosion that had taken down her shields and debris raining down around her. Or from a branch of a tree sapling on the Citadel. For the most part, she had forgotten about it. Despite meaning to put something on it for the past three hours. Her headache, however, had made her aware of its existence.

The door to her quarters slid open and she looked in its direction, heart jumping at the unexpected visitor. She was startled, lost in thought at the time The staff-lieutenant approached, first aid in hand, and she quietly raised a brow.   
  
“Kaidan -”   
  
“You're good at ignoring injuries, Shepard.” He sat at the desk beside, the gentle placement of bottled items echoing softly in the room, the silence that he set down the cloth. He was close to her, left knee touching her right, and he opened the bottle of antiseptic.

She watched him carefully, eyes lingering on what his hands were doing: taking a small, clean cloth, placing it on the opening of the bottle, tipping it upside down. Phoenix swallowed thickly. The cut on her forehead began to throb at the simple thought. 

"It's just a scratch. You don't need to -" 

"I want to." He set the bottle down, twisted the cap back on. She looked at his expression then, concern clear within his eyes. She hated seeing it, the worry. It made her heartache. Phoenix allowed him to press the cloth to the cut. She winced despite the gentleness of his action. "Sorry." 

"No need to be. Just…" She closed her right eye as it began to water. "I cannot handle stinging sensations very well." She caught the glimpse of her smile at her words. "What?"

"It's ironic: you get shot at almost daily, get cuts and bruises, but you never go to the medbay to get them dressed when you encourage everyone else to." 

"An old habit of taking care of smaller injuries by myself. After the raid, I became more aware that I needed to be strong for the younger siblings. Formed the habit of taking care of my injuries with no one looking. Soon as I landed on Earth after the Blitz, I discovered Kassandra was in an accident and in hospital. Saw her connected to the heart monitor, was a little terrified but she was awake so I wasn’t, you know… freaking out. And then,” Phoenix allowed herself to sigh and speak quietly as if the memory wasn’t so fond anymore. “She looked at me with terror and said ‘You’re hurt. Are you going to die?’. Broke my heart to see her more concerned over me than herself.”   
  
“How did you reply?”   


“Not honestly. I told her it was just a few scratches and bruised ribs - whilst I was on pain meds after surgery to remove a lodged bullet and bundle up in bandages.” She scratched the tip of her nose. “Hated lying like that but what else do you say to a seven-year-old, you know?”

He lifted the cloth from her skin and she watched his expression. Kaidan, despite his main focus being her injury, gave her a sympathetic look whilst he patted the area dry with a dry section of cloth. “Yeah. You don’t want to worry someone you love so you say what you know will comfort them.”

Phoenix cracked a smile, watching him look at the different sizes and types of dressing in front of him with a calculating gaze. “Like you did last week on Noveria?”

He took a dressing, tense as he hyper fixated on taking off the adhesive backing. “I, uh.” He cleared his throat and her smile widened at the ghost of pink on his cheeks. “I admit I wasn’t, ah, completely honest.”

She hummed in agreement and laughed a little. “Yeah, it was pretty obvious.” She straightened her back a little and held up some of her hair as Kaidan began to lay the dressing. “Worried me though - didn’t know how hard the Rachni caught you.”   
  
“Hard enough to bruise.” His touch was gentle and kind, deliberately only putting enough pressure on that it would stick but not enough to hurt. “I didn’t mean to -”

“‘Best laid plans of mice and men often go awry’ so they say.” When he moved his hand away, she allowed her hair to fall back into place. “I’m glad you’re okay, Kaidan. And thank you for, well, this.” She gestured at her temple.   
  
“Anytime, Commander.” Kaidan stood, collecting everything under his arm. “If you need me, I’ll be at my station for another hour.”

“Of course.” She turned to her computer and returned to reading an email.

“Shepard?”   
  
“Hm?” Phoenix looked back at Kaidan, who looked at her in curiosity. And then he shook his head. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Good luck with your report to Hackett.”   
  
“Thank you. Good night, Kaid.” She smiled kindly, a gesture he returned.   
  
“And you, Commander.”


End file.
